


Years

by DaemonBites



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Codependency, Kid Fic, Not Beta Read, POV Alternating, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel, but not really kid-friendly, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:35:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23052559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaemonBites/pseuds/DaemonBites
Summary: This time around the depression is too much for him to escape.And the burning anger inside is too much for her to contain.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	1. Back Here

Sasuke shook from the assault of memories, old and new beating in the back of his mind like a million drums. 

The years of work, of bloodshed and home, and scrambling fingers for answers suddenly gone. It was all _gone._

The empty sound of his dead clan echoed inside his head. 

Sasuke shoved a fist into his mouth and screamed.

Sakura nearly brained herself on the sink when she stumbled into the bathroom. 

She gripped the porcelain as hard as she could. It didn’t give. 

Her strength, their victory, the simple happiness of having him stay, to have her shoulders brushing theirs as **equals**.

Sakura stifled the hysterical sob that bubbled in her throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot bunny? I think I might expand more but as a rule I’m more of a short stories in one universe kind of gal. Hope you liked it, however short it is. :)
> 
> Edit: forgot to say this is a mishmash of canon and headcanons so it might be a little confusing until later.


	2. Rage

Ino was beginning to get a little scared.

Which, to be clear, she’d never admit unless there was a kunai to her neck but that didn’t change anything.

Ino was scared.

And she was scared _of_ Sakura.

Ino would never say it out loud. Sakura was sensitive and a crybaby. Maybe it’s just something at home, maybe Sakura’s parents were just nagging her about the Academy again, or she’s getting bullied again but...  
  


“Hah?” Ino had never ever heard that voice come out from quiet little Sakura. She gaped at Sakura together with the annoying girl trying to insult her again. Sakura’s back was ramrod straight and her glare could’ve spoiled milk. “The hell did you just say to me?!”

“Sakura-chan!” Ino gasped, reflexively looking around to check if their sensei had come in. That would’ve been the soap punishment for her and as clan heir there was no way she would’ve been able to get away with it even in the Academy. “You said a bad word!”

Sakura shot her a confused look, confused but still so angry and she flinched back just a bit.

“Y-you can’t say that! What if a teacher heard!” Ino then turned to the twit still gaping in front of them. “And don’t you dare tattle or you’ll regret it!”

Maybe it was her reputation still or maybe it was the impressive scowl on Sakura’s face but the kid all but pinwheeled back to her seat. Ino turned to look at Sakura again, trying to be stern. “You can’t say bad words, Sakura-chan! It’s not very ladylike, ne?”

Her demure and very proper best friend huffed- huffed!- and slouched on her seat. It would’ve come off as a classic Nara pose but the glare that was beginning to worry Ino wasn’t disappearing.

The teeth rattling anger didn’t go away even a few days later. Sakura just seemed so... so mad. Ino felt like she was watching a ninja tag ready to go off at the slightest provocation. Sakura glared at everyone and everything. She barely answered questions from the teachers, she’s broken two sets of chopsticks and Ino nearly had a heart attack when Sakura punched an older girl harassing her to the face.

The only saving grace was that Sakura nearly cried when she broke the chopsticks and she actually apologized right after giving their senpai a black eye. Sakura listened when Ino told her off but then something would inevitably trigger her temper again and Ino would be left wondering where her soft crybaby best friend had gone.

“My punches are too weak.” Sakura had suddenly announced during their taijutsu training. They were all taking turns at 3 practice logs to make sure their forms were all nice and proper.

“That’s what training’s for, silly!” Ino tried a laugh, like she hadn’t seen that bully cry real tears after Sakura swung at her with her entire weight. “But we have to get our forms first so we won’t hurt ourselves!”

She’ll probably have to help Sakura a bit. The girl had been oddly clumsy these days.

Sakura pressed her mouth into a thin line and stepped forward for her turn. She wasn’t too terrible. Ino knew she got extra training because of her clan so the fact that Sakura knew the basics enough to finish the entire set was good. She beamed proudly as their sensei nodded in approval and graded her.

“Very good, Sakura-chan.” Suzume-sensei remarked softly. “Practice enough and the logs won’t be able to stand up to your punches, ne?”

All at once Ino knew that was the wrong thing to say. She saw Sakura’s shoulders stiffen, emerald eyes narrowing and lips curling in distaste. The world slowed and Ino felt her breaths shorten when her best friend turned, pulled her fist back and punched the solid wood with all her might.

The sound of fine bones breaking and the flower of red splitting from Sakura’s fingers would give Ino nightmares but it was the sound of pure, unrestrained **rage** that poured out of the pink-haired girl’s lips that would haunt Ino her entire life.

“Ino? Honey?” Her father caught her before her face met the floor of their flower shop. “Ino!? Are you ok!? Are you hurt anywhere!?”

It was the look on her father’s face, that look of concern she used to see on Sakura’s that made her snap.

She heard herself crying before it fully registered and she curled into her father’s arms with an ugly sob because she couldn’t lie anymore. She **couldn’t.**

Sakura-chan...  
  


Sakura-chan terrified her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Outsider POVs are my jaaaam and poor bby Ino. Sakura’s abrasive nature is not something she’s used to unlike in the og timeline where they were all in war so no one gave two shits. 
> 
> (I fcking love all the girls in the series they couldve been so much more)


	3. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Betrayal is a cloying, acrid taste that coats his mouth like poison and he has no choice but to swallow it down with a brittle smile.

This was the Konoha that betrayed him.

Sasuke clamped his hands over his mouth as bile threatened to spill past his throat again. It's been a few days since he found himself _here,_ in this nightmare of nightmares and Itachi's ~~_sacrificebetrayalduty_~~ _love_ wrapped around him like a soul crushing embrace. The genjutsu that plagued him as a child, that rewrote his entire soul for the sake of life, of love, so Itachi wouldn't be the very _last_ because an Uchiha's love was selfish in all the ways that most people would think insane.

Sasuke of Before had learned to accept it, never forgave but had yearned for that familiar gesture of love all the same. This body wasn't his, not anymore. The disconnect was making it harder for him to accept his brother's words- no- it was making him fight it.

His head spun and he barely managed to reach the toilet before he was throwing up again. He knew who he was, what he did to the ones he loved and who loved him in return. He _knew;_ But the mental torture this body went through was threatening to undo it.

Sasuke sobbed into the porcelain, the wet sound and the tears rolling down his cheeks a reminder that this body hasn't ran out of tears yet. He was young and untrained and he was weak and his clan had died ~~_years_~~ _onlymonths_ ago.

He had tried to leave the compound once, the routine of the Academy engraved in his bones and the prospect of seeing someone familiar, someone distracting sounded like bliss to him. He had taken one step out the gates, took one look at the Old Konoha, the Konoha he had all but destroyed and fled back into the dead house of his childhood like a coward.

Sasuke hadn't even heard the ANBU that checked him when he collapsed, squeezed his eyes shut as a medic ~~nothisSakura~~ put him silently on his bed and wrote notes in that clipboard he had angrily set on fire Before. They left him there and Sasuke didn't move for hours until his stomach forced him to wander to the kitchen and nibble at a ration bar stashed in the missions pantry.

Sasuke wanted to fall back to mind numbing training but Itachi’s words rang like a death toll. Bitterly, he wished Naruto was here with him to be loud and annoying and Sakura to challenge them both in a three-way spar before she was forced to murder them for being stupid. 

His heart ached whenever he thought of her, strong and steady and almost as possessive as he was. 

A knock on the front door made Sasuke jump in surprise.

The chakra signature behind the door was…

He was opening the door before he could realize what he was doing, the world sharp and crisp clear and he saw the eyes of the man that watched his clan fall and his best friend grow up shunned, and alone. 

“Ah.” Sarutobi Hiruzen made the sound lightly like Sasuke wasn’t leaking killing intent like a faucet. “I see you’ve reactivated your Sharingan, Sasuke-kun.”

**Kill him. Kill him. KILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIM.**

Sasuke slammed the door close and crumpled down the floor with his hands on his ears, trying to ignore the sibilant words of Orochimaru hissing like sweet poison in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to add another Outsider POV but I can't think of someone appropriate enough considering... Sasuke. I was thinking Hiruzen but eh.... XD Maybe in another chapter.


	4. Together Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one more before they are finally complete.

Sakura knew she had to calm down.

She knew but it didn’t mean she could do much about it.

She glared heatedly at the cast on her right hand, annoyed beyond belief that healing it with chakra was something a bit beyond her abilities at the moment. The medics at the hospital refused to and while Sakura knew intellectually that it was meant to be a punishment for her actions it didn’t make her any less pissed.

She groaned and slammed her head on the desk, ignoring the grumblings of the teacher she couldn’t actually remember the name of. She had seen neither hair nor hide of her two boys and she’d start something but…

But Naruto had not one subtle bone in his body and would’ve approached her by now and Sasuke was just as bad no matter how stone silent he could be. He would’ve announced it somehow like a direct confrontation or some form of barbed remark Ino would be shrieking at to hear. 

She resisted the urge to scream and throw a tantrum when she thought about Sai.

“Sakura-chan.” Ino murmured from beside her. “It’s lunchtime.”

Sweet, wonderful Ino with none of that rivalry that had soured their friendship for so many years. Sakura grinned and despite the fact that Ino had grown understandably leery of her temper, the blonde still beamed and tugged her outside to eat. 

  
  


Sasuke held his breath as several children ran by his hiding place, trying to muster up the courage to step into the Academy. 

It was already past lunchtime when he finally managed to reach the building and the sounds of screaming and energetic kids getting trained to be shinobi rang high in the air. 

He slowly took a step, and another, and another, chanting reassurances into his head that sounded suspiciously like Kakashi. Look relaxed, shoulders loose, try not to accidentally stab a child, and always be two hours late. 

He’s  _ three _ hours late. That man better be damned proud now. 

“Ah, Uchiha-san.” his homeroom teacher, not Naruto’s Iruka, greeted him as he finally enters his classroom. “I’m glad you’re feeling better now. The Hokage had a messenger run by so no need to worry about missed work. I’m sure you’ll catch up in no time.”

A smile with too many teeth and a gleam in his eyes that reminds Sasuke too much of Orochimaru. He swallowed down bile and nodded. He needed out of here. Fresh air, fresh air. Away from opportunistic snakes that want his eyes, his blood, what little he has left. 

Sasuke all but ran towards the wide field out back, letting himself relax at the sight of innocence and energy. He clutched at the meager lunch he had prepared, just onigiri and his thermos and headed straight for an empty spot just next to the first floor faculty room. No self respecting kid would ever hang about there to potentially bother him. 

He’s halfway sitting when his eyes catch a flash of pink. 

_ Oh.  _

There you are.

  
  


It’s Sasuke. 

Sakura knew his signature better than anyone else in the world, sharp and banked and already crackling with lightning instead of the raging fire Konoha thought him to be. Sasuke is a lightning storm in a too small bottle, screaming and never ceasing in its attempt to scorch the earth underneath to cinders. Deadly in it’s own way that their sensei had perfected into a strike that can split the ground in two in one lightning bolt. 

“Haruno.”

His shadow covered hers, encompassing, consuming, and her body thrummed in possessiveness in answer. Her chakra flared, small now but with the promise of the earth biding its time to wrestle back the ground her love had destroyed. A dance she had finally learned to thrive in instead of shrinking to. 

She looked up and was greeted by the familiar red of Sharingan, no Mangekyou nor Rinnegan and for the first time Sakura felt fierce relief at having been thrown back to this time. 

They were broken, shattered into tiny little pieces but the parts weren’t lost now, stripped away into the unforgiving void. 

Sakura stood, ever shorter than Sasuke even during puberty, and grinned her Inner grin. 

“Welcome back, Uchiha.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eiiiii our babies are together again! Now to take a crack on how I’ll smash Naruto into this.
> 
> Every time I think abt the Naruto timeline my head starts to fcking throb.


End file.
